Defense sees need for improvement despite strong opening effort

IRVING – On the face of it, the performance by the Dallas Cowboys defense in the season opener should have been a point of pride for the unit.

After all, linebacker Keith Brooking & Co. held Washington to only a pair of field goals in the 13-7 loss.

But a late-game field goal marred the outing, Brooking said.

“We played well defensively for the majority of the game, but it was kind of disappointing to give up the field goal at the end,” Brooking said.

The Redskins led 10-7 when they began their final possession with 6:14 left. Mixing the run and the pass, Donovan McNabb needed nine plays to move Washington from its own 23-yard line to the Dallas 31 for a 49-yard field goal with 1:56 left.

McNabb converted a third-and-two early in the possession with a 10-yard pass to Santana Moss.

Had the Cowboys forced the Redskins to punt, a David Buehler field goal would have forced overtime. Instead, the game came down to the final play, an apparent 13-yard touchdown pass from Tony Romo to Roy Williams that was erased by a holding penalty against right tackle Alex Barron.

“We gave up that last three, which probably would’ve sent us into overtime,” defensive end Marcus Spears said. “We obviously made some mistakes on defense.”

Washington also had a shot at another field goal early in the third quarter, but a botched hold saved the Cowboys. During that possession, the Cowboys committed three penalties, two of which the Redskins accepted.

The defense also lamented the fact it didn’t record any takeaways after emphasizing in training camp and the preseason the need to create turnovers.

“That’s something we’ll need to focus on,” Spears said. “We need to get better at that and not get started late like we did last year. We have some stuff to work on.”

Said Brooking, “We had one turnover offensively, and we didn’t create one. That’s the one thing we talked about in the offseason that we need to improve on. If you look at it on paper, we outplayed them. But the one statistic that is key in wins and losses in this league is turnover ratio. It’s very key. If you can end the game plus in that category, you give yourself a very good chance of winning, and we obviously didn’t do that. That’s something we can improve on.”

“That’s the one thing we talked about in the offseason we need to improve on.